London Itinerary Advice (shocking, I know)

We took a London walks tour of the British Museum which really worked well to see the highlights without having to navigate too much.

We were there for the same amount of time as you are planning and didn't see as much as you have on your list....

Your 5.5 days will be pretty much taken up with your A-E must see list. You might be able to squeeze one or two of the wish list but not most of it.
I am however more concerned with the first week. I note that you are not asking about that but you are planning 5 different locations spread out across England, Wales and Scotland in what I assume is 7 days. Apart from Bath to Stow-on-the-Wold your location changes will each take the better part of a day. I can see no point whatsoever in going to Edinburgh. You say you only have one night there. Keswick to Edinburgh will take a few hours and you're leaving early the next morning to London.
Are you hiring a car up to Edinburgh? Public transport for the first week is doable but will make your available time at each location much shorter. But you really should not drive to Bath on your first day straight off what I assume is a long haul flight probably jet lagged with no experience of driving in the UK and maybe no experience of what for you on the "wrong" side of the road.

Referring back to Mary Ellen's original schedule, we know that the family are taking the train to Bath on arrival, renting the car at Bath and returning it at Penrith, before taking the train to EDI.
I remember vividly the lively discussion about the Day 1 transfer to Bath.

Yes, I am not open to debating our first week all over again. We are quite happy with the plan we have settled on.

ETA: We are not driving from Heathrow to Bath, we are taking a train. We will rent a car as we leave Bath.

Your 5.5 days will be pretty much taken up with your A-E must see list. You might be able to squeeze one or two of the wish list but not most of it.

So you don't think we can do anything else on the day we see Westminster Abbey and the War Rooms? That really surprises me.
I also don't think that E fills a whole day. Can you please explain more?

We took a London walks tour of the British Museum which really worked well to see the highlights without having to navigate too much.

I'll look into that. I hadn't thought of them for a museum trip. Thanks!

I spent more than half a day at the Churchill War Rooms, but where historical museums like that are concerned, I either skip them entirely or read every word posted and watch every video, so your timing may well be different. I can't address Westminster Abbey, not having been there yet despite 42 days in the city just since 2017. (I'm odd.)

The British Museum is monumentally crowded these days. If you can find things you're interested in on the upper floor, you will have a more pleasant experience; the ground floor always seems noticeably worse. I've taken the LondonWalks tour, and it will help you find your way to the covered sights your particular tour focuses on, but even LondonWalks can't do anything about the crush of the crowds. Conventional wisdom has it that weekends, Fridays and rainy days are the most crowded. I'd imagine holiday weekends are dreadful, too. The Museum is a popular family attraction for locals as well as tourists.

The British Museum is monumentally crowded these days. If you can find things you're interested in on the upper floor, you will have a more pleasant experience; the ground floor always seems noticeably worse. I've taken the LondonWalks tour, and it will help you find your way to the covered sights your particular tour focuses on, but even LondonWalks can't do anything about the crush of the crowds. Conventional wisdom has it that weekends, Fridays and rain days are the most crowded. I'd imagine holiday weekends are dreadful, too. The Museum is a popular family attraction for locals as well as tourists.

I'm honestly tempted to skip it altogether, as I don't fancy huge crowds shuffling around trying to see the same things. Is that crazy? Can I go to London and not go to the British Museum? I feel like I'd rather spend that time at Hyde Park or in a bookshop, or having lunch while thinking "I'm actually in London!"

Of course you can skip the British Museum. I've skipped Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's over the course of over a dozen trips.

For "The Obvious" I think you could fit in a walk through St. James Park up to the Buckingham Palace Gates on Day A. Perhaps even the Westminster Walk depending on how long you spend in Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms. Either walk would break things up nicely. On Day B you can cross the Millennium Bridge between your visits to St. Paul's Cathedral and the Globe.

For "The Wish List", if you're finishing the activities on Day D with tea at Kensingston Palace, you will certainly have time to walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens after that. That might also be the evening you go to the theatre or visit Sky Garden at sunset. For Sky Garden it would need to be a weekend evening, or you'd need restaurant reservations, since the public gardens close at 6 p.m. M-F, and sunset the first week of October is around 6:30. There are a couple other closure times that week--check their website for more info.

I think you might have time to add something to Day E also, but nothing in your wish list seems an obvious fit. The British Museum is in that general area, but that's another museum to add to a day that already contains a museum and a gallery visit.

There is also the brain dead part to contend with. The day we went to Westminster Abbey we spent the whole morning there, had lunch at their restaurant, then walked through St. James Park/Buckingham Palace and ended at Harrods (which I would have skipped). We then took the tube to St. Paul's for evensong. Afterwards we walked by the Tower of London, across the bridge and all along the Thames back to our hotel (Premier Inn). My plan was to go to the British Museum that day but decided it would be too much. It was a first full day in London.

The day we went to Churchill War Rooms we got there at opening and stayed until nearly lunch time, we had lunch, and then went to the Museum of London. We left in late afternoon to go back to our room. That evening we went to dinner and to see a play.

I don't think we had a particularly fast or slow pace so perhaps this is helpful. Now we had arrived in London from the U.S. and had some jet lag. If you do not, you may be able to do more than us.

I disagree with the statement that you already have a filled schedule - you have loads of capacity. The Abbey and CWR is 5 hours of your day, and are minutes apart. Similar with the Tower and St. Paul's, just a little further apart. Even the HP day you have space for something on your return.

By the sound of it Sky Garden has to be on the Sunday, the day you arrive from Edinburgh.
I think you can do the V and A on the Sunday, after you've dumped your bags on arrival, and before the Sky Garden.
That leaves three other evenings to slot the theatre visit in.
Leadenhall Market can be fitted in with the theatre visit.
Millennium Bridge can be slotted in on the night you go to the Globe, if not elsewhere.
Westminster walk could be another evening activity.
St James Park/Buckingham Palace can easily be slotted in on the Westminster Abbey/CWR day.
Peter Pan etc clearly fits on the Little Venice/Kensington Palace day.

I was at the British Museum last week. I wanted to see 4 sites—Rosetta Stone, Sutton Hoo, Parthenon Marbles, and cat mummies (which ended up being off exhibit). Due to size and crowds, this took 2 hours.

Also, doing the Tower, St. Paul’s, and standing (standing!) at a Shakespeare play is going to be an exhausting day.

I was at the British Museum last week. I wanted to see 4 sites—Rosetta Stone, Sutton Hoo, Parthenon Marbles, and cat mummies (which ended up being off exhibit). Due to size and crowds, this took 2 hours.

Yes, this is exactly what I was afraid of. It seems like a lot of time spent with little actually being seen. As worthwhile as it all is I'd prefer to see more of the city.

Also, doing the Tower, St. Paul’s, and standing (standing!) at a Shakespeare play is going to be an exhausting day.

I agree. I'm thinking we either do the play another night, or we "see" St. Paul's without doing the tour. The main thing one daughter wants is to see the steps of St. Paul's. Mary Poppins was one of her favorite movies as a child and she has always wanted to see where the bird lady would have been.

By the sound of it Sky Garden has to be on the Sunday, the day you arrive from Edinburgh.
I think you can do the V and A on the Sunday, after you've dumped your bags on arrival, and before the Sky Garden.

I hadn't even considered that we could do the V & A on arrival day. Thanks!

For "The Wish List", if you're finishing the activities on Day D with tea at Kensingston Palace, you will certainly have time to walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens after that.

That is very true. I have no idea what time to schedule our tea reservations, do you have a suggestion?

For Sky Garden it would need to be a weekend evening, or you'd need restaurant reservations, since the public gardens close at 6 p.m. M-F, and sunset the first week of October is around 6:30. There are a couple other closure times that week--check their website for more info.

Thanks for pointing that out. Does the same hold true for the bar? We thought we would just do cocktails there before going elsewhere for dinner. I know we wouldn't need to book the access ticket if we had restaurant reservations, but the website isn't clear on if that includes the bars or not.

As far as booking afternoon tea, I usually start with my reservation then work backwards from there to figure out what we can do during a day, and how early we need to start. So for example I made reservations for tea at The Wolseley at 4 p.m. one day. We also hope to finally visit Temple Church, and dip into the British Museum to see the Lewis Chessmen, (So sad to hear the cat mummies are off display--one thing I have seen on every visit.) and also visit Hatchards before tea. So I've given us 6 hours between arrival at Temple Church at 10 a.m. when they open, and our tea reservations--and we are walking between all these sites. The tea reservation is the only activity at a set time, so we can speed up or slow down as necessary to make our reservation.

Since you are starting the other way round, I'd ask myself: Are you going to walk around Little Venice, or just see it when you start your canal boat ride? Going to Speedy's Cafe for breakfast or lunch? Once you have figured out how much time your first activities take, then add a little extra before making reservations, remembering that last seating is usually at least an hour before the restaurant closes.

You don't need separate garden reservations if you have bar reservations. (This is buried in the FAQs page for Restaurants and Bars.) However if you're looking at a weekend, hop on the reservations as soon as they're available. We are booked for a late lunch on July 3, which means the gardens aren't open. I thought I'd be clever and rebook on Sunday, July 23 when we returned to London. Unfortunately Sunday means only brunch in the Darwin--not our thing--and by the time I made up my mind to book a bar reservation the only things left were after 9:30 p.m.